Egypt Makes Me Grateful to be an American

On one side, a democratically-elected despot and religious fanatic who wishes to impose his rule on the entire nation, citing his “legitimate” election as authority to do whatever he and his party wish.

On the other, a desperate populace so skeptical of its own capacity for self-government that it cries out to the military to stage a coup d’état and rescue the country from its political division and economic stagnation.

Egypt has become all of Alexis de Tocqueville’s nightmares in one nation: the tyranny of the majority, the democratic despotism, the yearning for military dictatorship instead of liberty. A case against democracy.

It makes me grateful, and proud, to be American–to be a naturalized citizen of a republic whose Founders established liberty, individual rights and limited government to bring forth the best of the democratic spirit.

And on this July 4th, we should remember that though failure is a distant prospect, it is always a danger against which we must be vigilant, defending our liberty against romantic promises of “transformation.”